The Portable Chaucer: Revised Edition

Paperback | May 26, 1977

In the fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer, who served three kings as a customs official and special envoy, virtually invented English poetry. He did so by wedding the language of common speech to metrical verse, creating a medium that could accommodate tales of courtly romance, bawdy fabliaux, astute psychological portraiture, dramatic monologues, moral allegories, and its author’s astonishing learning in fields from philosophy to medicine and astrology. Chaucer’s accomplishment is unequalled by any poet before Shakespeare and—in The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Cressida—ranks with that of the great English novelists.

Both The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Cressida are presented complete in this anthology, in fresh modern translations by Theodore Morrison that convey both the gravity and gaiety of the Middle English originals. The Portable Chaucer also contains selections from The Book of Duchess, The House of Fame, The Bird's Parliament, and The Legend of Good Women, together with short poems. Morrison's introduction is vital for its insights into Chaucer as man and artist, and as a product of the Middle Ages whose shrewdness, humor, and compassion have a wonderfully contemporary ring.

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In the fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer, who served three kings as a customs official and special envoy, virtually invented English poetry. He did so by wedding the language of common speech to metrical verse, creating a medium that could accommodate tales of courtly romance, bawdy fabliaux, astute psychological portraiture, dramati...

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, the son of a wine-merchant, in about 1342, and as he spent his life in royal government service his career happens to be unusually well documented. By 1357 Chaucer was a page to the wife of Prince Lionel, second son of Edward III, and it was while in the prince's service that Chaucer was ransomed w...

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Table of Contents

IntroductionSuggested Readings and Other Aids

THE CANTERBURY TALES

PrologueThe Knight's TalePrologue to the Miller's TaleThe Miller's TalePrologue to the Reeve's TaleThe Reeve's TalePrologue to the Cook's TaleThe Words of the Host to the CompanyPrologue to the Lawyer's TaleEpilogue to the Lawyer's TaleThe Words of the Host to the Shipman and PrioressPrologue to the Prioress's TaleThe Prioress's TalePrologue to "Sir Topaz"Sir TopazThe Host's Interruption of "Sir Topaz"Epilogue to the Tale of MelibeusThe Knight's Interruption of the Monk's TaleThe Nun's Priest's TaleEpilogue to the Nun's Priest's TalePrologue to the Wife of Bath's TaleThe Wife of Bath's TalePrologue to the Friar's TaleThe Friar's TalePrologue to the Summoner's TaleThe Summoner's TalePrologue to and Conclusion of the Student's TaleChaucer's EnvoyPrologue to the Merchant's TaleThe Merchant's TaleEpilogue to the Merchant's TaleEpilogue to the Squire's TalePrologue to the Franklin's TaleThe Franklin's TaleThe Words of the Host to the Physician and PardonerPrologue to the Pardoner's TaleThe Pardoner's TalePrologue to the Manciple's TalePrologue to the Parson's TaleChaucer's Retractation

TROILUS AND CRESSIDATranslator's NoteText

SELECTIONS AND SHORT POEMSfrom The Book of the Duchessfrom The House of Fame, Book IIfrom The Bird's Parliamentfrom the Prologue to the Legend of Good WomenNobilityTruthLack of SteadfastnessChaucer's Envoy to BuktonChaucer's Words to Adam, His Own CopyistChaucer's Complaint to His PurseChaucer's Envoy to Scogan

Editorial Reviews

“The most successful translations of Chaucer’s poetry that I have ever seen.”—Chicago Tribune